Tax credits

[ReturnofSaturn]

Hi there just looking for a bit of advice on our tax credits claim....

I recently applied for tax credits, assuming that we may only be eligible for some child tax credits....

However I have seen in my bank account that we have had payments for child credits and working tax credits ...

Info: I'm a SAHM to one baby. My husband works full time earning £14.60 an hour. We have recently got back from living abroad for a few years. So they are taking the info from his current job to work out the tax credits..

Can someone tell me if this is correct as I don't want to be spending the working tax credit money if we are not actually supposed to be entitled to it???

Yes, it seems like a high salary to be entitled to anything if no childcare costs. FWIW I earned roughly 22k and had significant childcare costs and was only entitled to the childcare element.

Yes I'm a bit worried about it...do you think I should call them??
I don't know anything about benefits as never had to claim anything before so I'm very confused

From experience of being over payed and having to pay it back (tax credits are very confusing when your are self employed and we have actually decided to stop claiming now as we always end up paying money back) I would ring them today and speak to them. Ask them to go through it with you.
Did they send you a letter laying it all out for you? You Normally receive a letter each (you and DH)

What makes you think you're entitled to tax credits if you're a SAHM and your partner earns over £30k a year?

No no letter yet...they have paid us a payment of £563.30 for WORKING tax credits and a payment of £327 for CHILD tax credits ...

Seems way too high. My childcare costs were approx 8000 and I got maybe 40-50% of that, max. One income as lone parent.

I would keep the money aside, write them a letter saying you think the award is wrong.

The payments don't come separately do they?

I have been closing since 2004 and never had separate payment for working and child

*claiming

Hamburgers... because I rang them up and they told me I may be entitled to some child tax credits so they sent me a application pack....I wasn't expecting much, if anything tbh.

I wouldn't touch the money and wait for your award notice. Read it through very carefully and see if the information used is wrong. For a 1 child family that seems extremely high. There is an online calculator you can use just google tax credits calculator. Put in the information and see the amounts. At £30,000 per year income I would be very surprised if you were entitled to any where near those amounts.

...

What makes you think you're entitled to tax credits if you're a SAHM and your partner earns over £30k a year?

What makes HMRC think she's entitled? They're the ones who've paid her. Or do you think she shouldn't have made a claim?

Full time could be anything from 30 hours, which would not be anywhere close to £30k. Looking at the last set of entitlement tables published for tax credits, it's not until family income goes over £25k that they'd have nil entitlement.

It will be backdated and bringing you up to now. I wonder why the separate payments, maybe that's normal and mine isn't

They might be using last years income to base it on, so if he’s showing no income (in the UK) last year you’re getting maximum TCs, but next year they will base it on this year’s earnings and you will probably get nothing and have to pay back this years payments.

Put it all into a separate account for now (although once your ‘savings’ go over a certain level (£6k?) you won’t be eligible for TCs any more) and don’t spend it until you know what’s what. Tax credits are bastards and have no concerns about getting you into debt through their own mistakes.

I'm definitely going to ring them up and try get it sorted.

Just spoke to them.....
Yes they did work it out on us having a 0 income last year (us being abroad) even though I told them to base it off his current income.
Updated now though

Phew!!! Follow up with a letter so you have a paper trail.